#032: Remembering Our Ancestors: Forgiving and Belonging on Juneteenth

On this episode of Mother Tree Network, we celebrate Juneteenth.

It's a bittersweet holiday as it remembers centuries of enslavement and the promise of freedom for Black people in the U.S.

I reflect on a message from my ancestors, the challenge of belonging, forgiving, and practicing liberation.  We need to view humanity in its entirety and think about the bigger picture of our history and use Juneteenth to pause and go within, seeking wisdom from ancestors.

The episode focuses on holding and being with yourself and others without judgment or a sense of superiority, and fostering a sense of belonging to your ancestors and the earth.

I end by sharing a beautiful poem that emphasizes the importance of remembering, practicing liberation and forgiveness; listening to the wisdom of our ancestors. Tune in to honor Juneteenth and to hear these inspiring words on the power of remembrance and forgiveness.

TIME STAMP SUMMARY

[00:02:38] Ancestors' love transcends sense of belonging.

[00:06:57] Belonging, colonization, forgiveness, slavery, reparations.

[00:10:16] Compassionate acknowledgement and ancestry exploration encouraged.

[00:13:38] Forgiveness and love flow between us all.

TRANSCRIPT

Aminata Sol [00:00:00]:

Peace, peace, beloved. This is Amina's Soul, plant Walker firewoman, also known as Dr. Amanda Kemp. And I'm recording this on June 10. So happy June 10. I want to share with you a poem, and then I'm going to share a couple of thoughts about freedom and liberation. This poem is called The Ancestors. And it came to me in response to a prayer that I sent up because I had been working on a play about Benjamin Franklin and slavery.

Aminata Sol [00:00:35]:

And it was a very smart play. It was very informative, it was provocative. But I felt like it lacked soul. I felt like it didn't move people into their hearts to really look at themselves. So I sent up this prayer, and this is what came back in my journal. It's called the ancestors. You know the ancestors are calling you you know the ancestors are calling you. They say, remember me.

Aminata Sol [00:01:15]:

They say forgive me. They say, I forgive you. They call and they weep when they see us dead on our feet, when they see us walking nowhere, when they see us running after the same thing again and again and again and again. You hear you there running for that check, to that man for the job you hate, to that woman, for that bottle, to that weed, to that strawberry shortcake, the whole cake always looking out, never within. The ancestors are calling. The ancestors are calling on you to stop and know and remember and feel and forgive me. You, you, me. Remember Shahmin.

Aminata Sol [00:02:38]:

And I thank the ancestors for that message. And as I shared the poem out loud this morning, I'm thinking about what my ancestors, my benevolent and most enlightened ancestors, have for me. What is the message that they have for me? Of course, first is the message of love, the message of I belong, that there's no way I could not belong. And part of the illusion of being in America and being black is the constant, I don't know, schizophrenia, craziness, anxiety about belonging and where do you belong and do you belong enough? And one of the things I've struggled with in these 50 odd years that I've been on this planet, in this body, is that sense of belonging. Because I grew up in foster care, in part, but also because I grew up in America. I was born in the segregated south in Mississippi. There's this absolute love and disgust toward blackness in America and the societal context, combined with the instability in my family and the sense of not being good enough to have been taken care of by my birth family and inside of our soul. Journey to the summer solstice.

Aminata Sol [00:04:32]:

I was reflecting in my writing yesterday yesterday was about release. I was reflecting in my writing yesterday that one of the thoughts that I carry around in my body, in my solar plexus, upper solar plexus, is the sensation that I am a fake child. And there are some real children. And real children belong. And real children get to make mistakes in their families and still be loved and not given away or taken back. The real kids don't have to work for love. It's us fake kids who got to be out here proving ourselves so that we don't get kicked out. And what's so weird is as I was writing this, feeling it in my body, where it comes from inside of my body, I started thinking about, quote, real kids.

Aminata Sol [00:05:41]:

And how even the real kids I know those who grew up inside of their families, those whose parents do love them and provide for them, even those kids have anxiety about being fake kids. Even those kids have the fear of abandonment. So this poem of the ancestors saying, I forgive you, and them saying, remember me and forgive me, it's like, to me, it's like saying that we belong to each other. We belong to each other. We belong to each other. We belong to each other. We belong to each other. We belong.

Aminata Sol [00:06:33]:

I belong. I wish everybody could just say, I belong. I belong. I belong. And as I was journaling yesterday, I was realizing I was feeling into belonging to the earth. Belonging, like, literally belonging to the earth. Like, I am her child. I am of this earth.

Aminata Sol [00:06:57]:

I am ken to the stones and the crows and the butterflies and the cardinals and the waters running, the brooks, the creeks. I belong just as much as they belong. I belong. And it is this colonization, this disease that perpetuates the illusion of not belonging. I want to touch on forgiveness because this is Juneteenth, so of course we're thinking about slavery, freedom and slavery. And yesterday, as I was walking, I was like, well, you could have the holiday, but give me reparations. I was thinking about how easy it is to fight for and get the symbolic things like a holiday as opposed to moving resources like money and land and doing that difficult work. But I also want to talk about slavery, freedom, and forgiveness, because that play that I end up writing about Benjamin Franklin and slavery, it stayed inside the question of can we forgive slavery? Can we forgive Benjamin Franklin? Can we forgive Deborah Reed Franklin, who both practice enslaving people and who practice I would call it emancipating.

Aminata Sol [00:08:54]:

Let's call it emancipating people, for lack of a better, more subtle way of describing that. And I think it has to be held inside of a context of it's. First of all, numerous atrocities against human beings of one group over other groups, of the atrocities created when states become empires and create ideologies and whole systems to oppress people. We people of African descent are not the first oppressed people or the only or even the last. So hold it bigger. Hold it bigger. It's almost like elevating up to see longer history, longer time, and also to see us as belonging to the Earth and to all of her peoples. And honestly, in that context, it is not my place to forgive atrocities against humanity.

Aminata Sol [00:10:16]:

In that context, it is my place to hold the souls and the histories with compassion. It is my place to notice where in my body, in my lineage and my DNA, the capacity for horror, for empire, for extraction where it shows up and to not exile it or repress it, but to befriend it. Not to let it run me, but to befriend it. If it's here, it needs to be seen and considered. So this is a grown ass episode. This is not an episode that's going to give you some easy answers. But I'm pointing toward a way of holding, of being with, where righteousness does not creep into resentment and those satisfying feelings of being better than let's take a moment. So on this Juneteenth, I encourage you to tap into your ancestors, to ask what message they have for you.

Aminata Sol [00:12:16]:

And of course, the first way to tap into is to remember, to reattach remember, to not break off, but to remember and to remember what is most first, what is most easily available to you. Start there and then expand from there. Start with what is easy, what is most available to you, and then spread from there. So the first words they say is remember me. Second is forgive me. So they have done or not done or ways that they have been in this planet, been disharmonious, maybe have been outright extractive or acting inside of all the awfulness of rape culture. So they say forgive me. And then the third thing they say is I forgive you.

Aminata Sol [00:13:38]:

And I think that is our work is to remember and accept, to allow love to flow between us and our ancestors, which is when we are looking at forgiveness. And then to forgive ourselves, to allow love to flow in and out of us freely, to allow love to flow in and out of us freely, is one way to forgive ourselves and to allow love to flow between us and others is one way to think about forgiving others. And so that's what I have for you for this Juneteenth episode. Thank you for being here. Thank you for showing up whole and holy. And if you would like to work with our slowest good programs, if you would like to find out more about what it's like to have one on one mentoring with me, please just go to Amanda at dr amandacamp.com. Amanda at dr amandacamp.com. That's my email.

Aminata Sol [00:15:02]:

Or just go to my website, drmandacip.com. All right, peace and love. See you next time.